Photo: WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty
On Friday, a first plane carrying the individuals and their families arrived on U.S. soil in Fort Lee, Virginia, according toThe Washington Post.
Over the next few days, those travelers will finish the last rounds of processing before they are relocated across the nation, Ross Wilson, head of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Afghanistan, said, per thePost.
With assistance from the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, the Afghan people “will be sent on to places where friends, relatives or other connections already live,“The Wall Street Journalsaid.
America’s military presence in the Middle East has been a key part of foreign policy under every president sinceGeorge W. Bush, who first invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 in the wake of 9/11. Bush went on to invade Iraq in early 2003, a conflict that ended in 2011, but operations in Afghanistan continued under former PresidentsBarack ObamaandDonald Trump.
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“Today is an important milestone as we continue to fulfill our promise to the thousands of Afghan nationals who served shoulder-to-shoulder with American troops and diplomats over the last 20 years in Afghanistan,” Biden said in astatement. “… These arrivals are just the first of many as we work quickly to relocate SIV-eligible Afghans out of harm’s way—to the United States, to U.S. facilities abroad, or to third countries—so that they can wait in safety while they finish their visa applications.”
Continuing to thank those involved around the world who helped make the opportunity a reality, Biden added, “Although U.S. troops are leaving, we will continue to support Afghanistan through security assistance to Afghan forces, as well as humanitarian and development aid to the Afghan people to help them sustain their achievements of the past 20 years. He also noted that he wanted to “thank these brave Afghans for standing with the United States, and today, I am proud to say to them: ‘Welcome home.'”
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The plane that carried the Afghan interpreters and their families on Friday will be the first of many other flights, Ambassador Tracey Ann Jacobson, who is leading the State Department task force on the evacuations, said, perThe Wall Street Journal.
Jacobson told the publication that further details surrounding future flights could not be shared due to “security reasons.”
“We will learn from the experience of this first flight and apply it to future flights,” Jacobson told reporters, the outlet said. “These folks have, in recent days, left their entire lives behind and immigrated to the United States with just their luggage.”
In the coming weeks, more flights are scheduled to bring more applicants to the country, who have already been cleared and gained approval, according to the AP.
The Wall Street Journalreports that there are still “as many as 20,000 visa applications” that are left to process, citing the latest State Department quarterly report. Of those, more than half are still in the beginning stages, which the outlet says “can take years to complete.”
source: people.com
